When You Want to Quit, You Just Have to Keep Going!

Wow.  Completed the third week of the Ketttlebell Muscle program by Geoff Neupert, using double 20kg 'bells.

This program is not for the faint of heart. Summary, you are using double kettlebells and doing complexes for a prescribed number of repetitions and sets.  The other prescription is the amount of rest between sets.  

To describe a simple kettlebell complex, you perform a movement for a number of reps, then move right into another movement for a number of reps and so on.....that is one set. Then you take the prescribed rest period and repeat for the prescribed number of sets.  Most sets are 4-5 movements for 5 reps a movement, rest periods are 120 and 90 seconds depending upon the day and the week. Sets are 3-6, depending upon the day.  It is that simple, but not easy.

I'd give away the details of the program, but this is such a genius of a program it is worth every dollar to purchase the manual.  Kettlebell Muscle by Geoff Neupert  

I admit I use and pass around information I find on the net, and sometimes I will copy a persons program, photos and adapt and use it with out giving credit or even thanking the person.  I am sinful man, at times.  I can only pledge to not repeat that sin again.

After following this KB Muscle program strictly for three weeks I can make the claim that I haven't really dug deep and trained with kettlebells until this program.  There is magic in using two 'bells.

Over the past three years I have incorporated RKC Hardstyle KB training into my general strength and conditioning and specialized golf performance routines.  Trained enough to successfully pass the RKC in September of 2011 and fortunate to train others on the practice of using KB's for their personal health and fitness goals. I have witnessed remarkable results using KB practice.  Nothing I have done in the past with KB's can compare to this routine.  

Everything that was written in the manual is spot on.  

Here are a few random thoughts from my first three weeks:  I am writing this after still feeling the blood pumping and hormone jacked effects of the third week heavy day of training while I am sitting in my sauna doing a little body, mind and soul recovery.

That voice in my head shouted "QUIT" several times during these short but intense training sessions

For the first 9 sessions, the shortest session was 11 minutes, the longest was 21 minutes

Double 20kg 'bells movements have a more dramatic affect on your body than doing the same movements with a 90# bar

Damn I am HUNGRY all the time

No other training is being done, and I really do not feel like doing any other training

Sleep is deep

It is hard to put into words the feeling after doing the last rep of the last set of the routine that morning

The "secret" to this training is in the intelligent programming

Double kettlebell snatches are damn hard

The effects of the short morning session are still felt well into the late morning

Results and progress are being accomplished

The Double Push Press is my new favorite movement

Front Squats with double kettlebells trumps all other squat patterns for me

Each session is treated like it is the first time I am doing double 'bells, I am that excited

Nothing gives quite the emotional experience as a "maiden voyage"

Anticipation for the next session is high


There you have it, my recap of the first three weeks.  I am going to test this program out on someone else shortly, but before I can coach them through the first 6 weeks, I myself have to complete the journey.

Get Strong(er)!  Al   al@ironsolid.com

You Need to Add Muscle and Strength

After recently battling a nasty cold/flu for two weeks and starting off 2013 changing my nutrition habits with the Whole 30 which resulted in a weight loss of 16 pounds I was searching for a new and interesting muscle building and strength program.  The tools available to me are barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells and bodyweight.  I have a pretty nicely equipped home gym and have access to a studio where I instruct ketllebell strength and conditioning classes.

After much research and soul searching I chose the Kettlebell Muscle program by Geoff Neupert.  I met Geoff one time at the RKC I attended in Chicago in September 2011, he was one of the Master RKC's instructing and over seeing the certification.  Geoff is a strong individual with an extensive Olympic lifting background and I really like his no nonsense straight forward approach.

This is my first foray training exclusively with double kettlebells.  I purchased the manual Kettlebell Muscle by Geoff Neupert and it was well worth reading.  In February while finishing up my second journey through Dan John's Easy Strength I messed around with some of the workouts in my KB class using the double 16kg and double 20kg 'bells.  I found out very quickly that this program was no joke.  The double 20kg 'bells humbled me very fast I couldn't complete some of the workouts following the prescribed set/rep and rest intervals. On paper the program looks so simple and easy.

One of the statements in the manual is "this program is so hard and so demanding that you really shouldn't want to do anything other than eat and rest."  This made me think.  I would tackle this challenge alone.  So I decided that for the next 12 weeks I would do "this" program.  I would follow the program the way it is written and not jump into anything else.  A 12 week self experiment.

Here is the program structure:

Monday:  Medium Day
Tuesday: Off, Active rest
Wednesday: Light Day
Thursday: Off, Active rest
Friday: Heavy Day
Saturday: Off, Active rest
Sunday: Off

Weeks 1-6 you are performing double kettlebell complexes, then in weeks 7-12 you perform double kettlebell complexes and chains.  Like most well written muscle building programs it is intelligently progressive in nature.

That's it, simple as simple can be.  The sessions will take between 15 and 45 minutes according to the manual.

My "Active Rest" days will work fine since those are the days that I instruct my general KB S&C class.  I do some teaching demonstrations and will get in enough dynamic mobility that it really is not taxing my system but will aid in recovery.

Golf season is also starting up, so I spend time hitting practice shots at my home golf range and when the weather breaks I will start walking 9 holes a few times a week for relaxation and conditioning (occasionally I will enjoy a fine cigar when I am walking, man's gotta have his vice's, no?).

The promise of this program, if you follow it as written, is muscle building.

Here is what you can expect from the program according to the manual:

Each session will feel like a "workout"
Brief training sessions
Psychologically challenged
To be hungry
To be tired
To be sore
To question your manhood or womanhood
Your grip to almost fail
Incredibly high heart rates
To sleep well
To use recovery methods
Most Importantly, Expect New Muscle Growth!

I chose this program because it fits my fitness goals and needs exactly!  It is funny how that happens.  When the student is ready the teacher will appear, or something like that corny statement that I never believed.

I am into the second week of this journey and will write a recap after the first Six Weeks, so far I like it.

Stay strong!  Al  al@ironsolid.com

Whole 30 Part 2, the Sequel

After my initial Whole 30 experience I went into a transition phase and continued to follow Whole 30 principles and added in a few "cheat" days.  My "cheats" were just a little ice cream!  For my evening snack I added a scoop (OK, maybe a little more at times) of vanilla ice cream to my fresh berries. I stayed completely away from grains, and found when I ate legumes bad things occurred. I am still abstaining from alcohol and my drink of choice is still black coffee and water.  I tried some coconut water, not a fan. After 60 days using the Whole 30 principles I am happy to say that I am now at supreme fighting weight.  I weigh in at 85kg and my body fat is 9%.

Here are some random thoughts about the second phase.

Decreased strength in the dead lift and the bench press as I finished up the second round of Dan John's time honored Easy Strength program.  Considering I dropped 16 pounds of bodyweight this was expected.  My chin up and bodyweight movement strength increased, again I shed a bowling ball so this was also expected.

Edgy and angry.  HMM, this wasn't good but I struggled the entire month of February with anger issues.  The simplest things set me off, human incompetence set me off.  I'm not sure why this happened.  I have personal issues, I know.  I have demons and serious faults that I struggle with daily.  At this point I am not going to analyze myself but I am going to get things corrected.

Get the hell out of this cold weather, my body screamed all month.  This is the first year in many that I did not take a trip south out of this gawd awful winter weather in Western PA.  Where the hell is Al Gore and his global warming?  All politicians are liars.

In hind site I overtrained the entire month of February.  I did too much, tried to fit too many programs into my schedule and just plain burnt myself out.  That needs corrected.  When I get bored I train.  KB classes 6 times a week and lifting 5 times a week is a recipe for disaster and it hit me big time as I caught the nastiest flu/cold that I have had in over a decade at the end of the month. I was vulnerable to catch this virus/bug as I was run down, burnt out and over stressed.

I don't do sick well. There is a reason you get sick and I don't do it well.  My body shut down, it said enough, rest for 8 days.  Why? because I couldn't do anything but lay in bed, that is how sick I was.  Here I am, 6 months with out alcohol, just got myself in great condition and I end up with the flu?  Why me?  Why not me?  I learned a very valuable lesson. Slow it down.

Am I trying to cram so many 'wasted' years into the last 1/4 of my existence.  Mid-life crisis, or just finally realizing that time marches on (quickly) and the only thing we all have is time, but we just don't know how much we have left.

Reading the book the 4-Hour Chef by Tim Ferris turned me onto the best roasted chicken technique, now I love roasted chicken.  I also consumed more fish in the past 30 days than I did since I was living off canned tuna and fresh peaches back in the summer of '79 while in the Marine Corps in Southern California (simpler times).

Coffee is my new addiction, although I have cut way back in the past week and a half.

At time my mind kept playing a continuos loop of me sitting at the City Bar in the Aria Hotel and Casino at 5:00 in the morning, drinking top shelf small batch bourbon in weird shaped glasses for free, and smoking a robusto cigar while playing video poker (very slowly).  I felt comfortably numb, the aroma and taste of the thick cigar smoke intoxicating, and I was winning on the video poker machine while consuming $15.00 a shot whiskey on the house.  I had no place to go for the next 48 hours and I was feeling very blissful and content!

I'm kind of liking my lifestyle change when it comes to eating.  So for now I will stay the course.

If you have nothing to lose but unwanted fat and inches from your body I suggest your "google" the Whole 30 and get going.

Stay Strong and Stay Healthy, Al  al@ironsolid.com